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Who Killed Mr. Moonlight? Lyrics
Consider green lakes
And the idocy of clocks
Someone shot nostalgia in the back
Someone shot our innocence
And all our colours have run.
A broken arrow in a bloody pool
The wound in the face
Of midnight proposals
Someone shot nostalgia in the back
Someone shot our innocence
In the shadow of his smile
In the shadow of his smile
In the shadow of his smile
In the shadow of his smile
All our dreams have melted down
We’re hiding in the bushes
From dead men
Doing Douglas Fairbanks' stunts
All our stories burnt
Our films lost in the rushes
We can't paint any pictures
As the moon had all our brushes
Extracting wasps from stings in flight
Who killed Mr. Moonlight?
Who killed Mr. Moonlight
In the shadow of his smile
Who killed Mr. Moonlight
In the shadow of his smile
And the idocy of clocks
Someone shot nostalgia in the back
Someone shot our innocence
And all our colours have run.
The wound in the face
Of midnight proposals
Someone shot nostalgia in the back
Someone shot our innocence
In the shadow of his smile
In the shadow of his smile
In the shadow of his smile
We’re hiding in the bushes
From dead men
Doing Douglas Fairbanks' stunts
Our films lost in the rushes
We can't paint any pictures
As the moon had all our brushes
Who killed Mr. Moonlight?
Who killed Mr. Moonlight
In the shadow of his smile
Who killed Mr. Moonlight
In the shadow of his smile
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Always thought this was about the murder of John Lennon, for some reason...
@peter.puck Interesting. I once told David J I thought it was about the JFK assassination.
@peter.puck Interesting. I once told David J I thought it was about the JFK assassination.
Death of innocence. The realization you aren't immortal. See Douglas Fairbanks.
Not just goth rock, but the post-Romantic/Surrealist approach to art in general...the moon, in occult tradition (or even just in poetic tradition) is a symbol of inspiration; moonlight promises the unveiling of mysteries.
"Extracting wasps from stings in flight" is my favorite line. Kind of sums up the lack of innocence, the removal of beauty.
I've always read this song to be about the sudden, disastrous end of childhood/innocence. And the line is definitely 'And the idiocy of clocks' - how could it be anything else..? Children think clocks are idiotic because they are - clocks were only invented to get folks to work on time. But clocks are also intrinsically linked to the moon. And the idea of the man in the moon is something only children can truly unnerstand... (and we're all children). The end of childhood/innocence casts a shadow over us all. And don't forget 'extracting wasps from stings in flight' (removing the pure, innocent creature of its potential while it attempts to flee into the shadowy world of opportunity)? Perhaps...
[Edit: Clarification]
i think i agree with x____Fucktard
a really good song, in my opinion.
I always thought that it was "idiocy" rather than "diary" of clocks. Yes, David J sang this and he is amazing but I still prefer Peter Murphy's voice. Maddsurgeon, you're bang on. This was on their last album before they went their seperate ways and focused on different projects.
On the version of this song I have it says
"Consider green lakes and the diary of clocks Someone shot nostalgia in the back Someone shot our innocence and all our colors have run"
on the sleeve notes on my cd which has copies of the lyrics as was initially written it says
'consider green lakes and the idiocy of clocks someone shot nostalgia in the back someone shot our innocence'
one of my favorite tracks from the first Bauhaus album I heard
yeah...trust the sleeve notes...i've got the same ones from burning from the inside